On Dec. 10, Michael Connelly stood on the patio behind his house in the Hollywood Hills and gazed down at a generous slice of the city he’s been writing about for 38 years. There were the spires of Hogwarts at Universal Studios. There was the 101 freeway, flowing steadily in …
In Topanga Canyon on Saturday morning, suspended midair from an electricity line, hung the smoldering top of a utility pole. The pole itself had burned away. Its remaining crosspieces resembled a crucifix on fire. By the time Bob Melet videotaped this eerie scene, firefighters had managed to halt the advance …
More than a week after Los Angeles’s devastating fires began, the losses to the region’s rich architectural legacy are becoming clearer. The fires have already destroyed more of the county’s built heritage than other single event, according to Adrian Scott Fine, president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Conservancy, …
To live in Los Angeles is to be regularly reminded that much of what surrounds its residents is fleeting. That pertains, most essentially, to human life and the natural world, as the deadly fires reminded us this week. But also to both the vital everyday structures and the cultural monuments …
